This invention relates to fragrance samplers provided in magazines and the like.
Pull-apart fragrance samplers ("pull-aparts") are well known and widely used in the fragrance industries. Pull-aparts contain microencapsulated fragrances. When the pull-apart is opened, the microcapsules break, releasing the fragrance for the consumer to sample. Such samplers are provided as magazine and catalog inserts as well as direct mail samplers and statement enclosures for department stores.
There are several manufacturers of pull-aparts serving the fragrance industry. In order to compete with each other, it has been a constant battle to get the fragrance houses' approval for a particular fragrance in pull-apart sampler form. Each manufacturer of pull-aparts submits samples of its particular pull-apart for evaluation. If the rendition of fragrance is comparable between suppliers, many times the approval is awarded to the supplier with the strongest most effusive and overpowering delivery of a fragrance. Realizing this, suppliers of pull-aparts have steadily increased the concentration of fragrance in the pull-apart to the point the odor cannot be properly and completely maintained. Consequently, the pull-aparts smell of fragrance before the sampler is opened. This is what is termed "premature release" of the fragrance.
Modem magazines typically insert three, four, and sometimes as many as five pull-apart samplers into their publications, most of which experience premature release of fragrance. Initially, the fragrance houses whose fragrance was being so promoted liked this, and encouraged this effect. It became necessary to have premature release to compete with competitors who had an insert elsewhere in the magazine. Eventually, the entire magazine would reek of as many as five different fragrances.
As a result, the fragrance houses began to complain that their fragrance was overpowered by the pull-apart on the next pages and that there was no sense in sampling their fragrance because it was contaminated by other fragrances. Threatened by the loss of advertising dollars from the fragrance houses, some the magazine publishers decided to limit the number of pull-apart inserts per issue. This seemed to satisfy the fragrance houses somewhat; now there would be only two other pull-apart inserts with premature release of fragrance with which to compete. This decision caused manufacturers to severely cut production volumes of pull-aparts.
It was not until the postal workers, and more importantly consumers and magazine subscribers, complained that their privacy was being invaded by these unwanted odors, did the problem get serious attention. Consumers claimed that these inserts with premature release of fragrance caused nausea, headaches, rashes and allergic reactions. Many subscribers of magazines have canceled their subscriptions with complaints that they cannot even stand for the magazine to be in their homes. The consumers' complaints caught the attention of the state and federal legislators and the issue was brought before many state governments. New York and California, the biggest markets for fragrances, threatened the industry with laws that would as much as completely outlaw pull-apart samplers.
In an effort to solve the problem of premature release, manufacturers began to develop alternative sampling devises. Products such as SCENT SEAL, available from Scent Seal, Inc. of Los Angleles, Calif., were introduced. This product provides improved containment properties and allows marketers to sample a wet, liquid fragrance formulation. Traditional pull-apart samplers involve fragrance that is applied wet, but is rendered dry due to moisture evaporation. However, it is difficult to produce a pull-apart sampler which samples a wet, liquid fragrance formulation with improved containment properties in an in-line, print production process. SCENT SEAL involves a pressure sensitive label construction. This label is produced separately and is then affixed to a carrier, such as a printed page.
In an effort to resolve these problems and to avoid state and federal regulations restricting the use of pull-aparts, the manufacturers of pull-aparts set up a committee, headed by the CTFA (Cosmetic Toiletries and Fragrance Association) to establish self-regulatory guidelines for the manufacture of pull-aparts without premature release of fragrance. The committee determined that most instances of premature release were due to incidental, microcapsule breakage and leakage. The committee limited the diameter of the microcapsule contained within the pull-apart, the strip length and width, the paper stocks available to print on and many other items that have deteriorated the effectiveness of the pull-apart sampler. Even with these guidelines, the problem persists, and has raised serious questions as to whether or not the manufacturers can be trusted to be self-regulating, and more importantly, whether or not the problem can ever be solved using existing technology.